Getting My Nature On

I hate it when a manuscript goes all boring on me. I’m working away and I pause to take stock, reread some paragraphs, reread them again and come to the conclusion that it’s all boring drivel. If I think it’s boring, then my readers will definitely think it’s boring. Why? Because it is!

I hate that.

My characters don’t deserve boring. They’re sitting around (in my mind’s eye of course) filing their nails, tapping their toes, picking off imaginary specks of lint from their clothing, yawning… waiting for me to get back in the game and let them do something … anything…that’s not so damned boring. Eloch, the Champion of Entean, is using his staff as a pool cue. Genji is looking at me with a magnifying glass, trying to find my creative spark (all I see is his big magnified eye blinking at me.)

You’re never going to know these characters if I don’t get unbored, here.

So I did what I should have been doing more of.  Thanks to Mr. Al and a beautiful warm day, I played.

We went fishing. Took our little boat on its maiden voyage to a nearby lake.

I’ll be honest. I didn’t even fish…I just filled myself up with nature and came home refreshed.

It felt so good to be outside on the water in the warm!

Saw eagles and osprey (the osprey were enjoying a romantic interlude–very educational), floated on the water, dodged stumps,  explored the lake, ate sandwiches, relaxed.

The stump factor. This lake is a leftover from logging days. The loggers damned up a little creek to make a giant holding tank for the felled trees. They could float the trees over to the nearby railroad tracks, load them up and take them away. When the loggers cleared out every single tree they could find, they left.

But the lake stayed. And so did the stumps. Depending on the water table you can see them or not. You putter over them in your little boat and pray you don’t get stuck, which we did. Once. Kinda creepy looking at all those broken fragments emerging from the gloom.

I leave you with pictures from the day (without stumps)…hope it helps you get your nature on.   Have a great week, Peeps! Don’t work so hard. It makes you boring. Then the boring coats everything you touch. This is experience speaking. Go play.